Democratization in the Nordic World

Why are democratic politics in the Nordic countries comparatively peaceful and stable, dominated by compromise rather than conflict? The answer lies more than 100 years ago. Relatively strong and impartial state administrations facilitated the building of civil society movements and tolerated political party formation, leading to political change without revolutionary violence. Political scientist David Delfs Erbo Andersen compares the formation of states and their impact on social classes and democratization from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in contrast with Prussia and France.